Officials for the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid are taking a harder look at facilities proposed for the Games and are now analyzing temporary facilities that might be needed, should the bid be successful.
Current plans include an elevated track built over the football field at the LA Coliseum, and a proposal to temporarily convert Figueroa Street into a miles-long promenade for pedestrians and cyclists. The Coliseum hosted track and field for both the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games.
Track and field in 2024 would be held at the Coliseum, but there would not be enough room for a 400-meter track in the narrow space between the field and the stands. However organizers could solve the problem by erecting a raised floor inside the stadium – a platform on columns that would extend outward over the first 13 or so rows of seats. Bill Hanway, who is overseeing the bid’s technical aspects, said, “our 60-meter warm-up sprint track would be underneath there. We might be able to do some really cool things like have hydraulic lifts and have athletes rise up from underneath the platform to receive their awards”.
The structure could be completed in about four months and torn down by the end of September for the remainder of USC’s football season.
The technology was recently used successfully at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
A planned soccer stadium for the Los Angeles Football Club would house a temporary pool similar to the ones used for the U.S. Olympic trials in Long Beach and Omaha. The pool would be placed close to the stands on one sideline, with temporary bleachers constructed on the opposite side, allowing for 20,000 to 25,000 seats.
The committee is looking for a way to connect two neighborhoods in the bid’s downtown cluster centered around Staples Center and Exposition Park. Officials said a plan, that is still conceptual, could be done by shutting off Figueroa Street to automobile traffic for the Games. Food trucks, displays and technology exhibits would line the promenade. However the plan has not yet been negotiated with businesses along the street.
Additional temporary venues would be required for archery and various events at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, and a rowing venue has yet to be confirmed.
Los Angeles is competing against Paris, Rome and Budapest for the 2024 Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to select a host city in September 2017.
